the artist will spell out Camus’ existential essay “The Myth of Sisyphus” in cookies, one word at a time. each word will be installed in a public location and constructed from a different kind of cookie, locally-purchased or prepared. each word of the essay, 1406 in total, will appear in a different city. the project will continue indefinitely until the improbable event of its completion.

the temporary cookie installations will be documented through digital photography and video. The photos will be added to the Flickr database and the videos posted to the artist’s website.

project rules:1. the cookies must be purchased or prepared in the city.2. the words must be constructed and installed in the exact order they appear in Camus’ essay.3. the words must be installed in a local language.4. the artist must eat a cookie at the site.5. the artist must find a nearby hill or incline and roll a cookie down it.6. no repeating cities. each word must be installed in a different city.7. no repeating cookies. each word must be constructed out of a different kind of cookie.

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As often as possible, I will bring additional local cookies home and host the cookie is still rolling update parties where you can come to my apartment, eat the cookies, and check out the latest photos and videos.

Are you planning to "cookie" Vancouver, British Columbia or Vancouver, WA? I am the editor of a Vancouver, BC magazine and would potentially like to do a review of your cookie exploits. Please contact me at belinda@blurbmedia.net.

Anonymous, according to your argument, culture should be suspended until injustice ends, since it's always possible to argue that saving a life is more important than making art. But anyone who's not a real head-in-the-clouds idealist knows that, unfortunately, injustice will always exist, and that culture will, and must, persist even in the darkest times. In any case, it is of course possible to both produce art and make more directly practical contributions to society (it would be strange to assume that this artist does nothing but play with cookies). But, more importantly, artists ultimately have no more or less responsibilty in humanitarian matters than anyone else. They might help, they might not, but being artists in no way implies that they should take any particular stance towards anything other than making art.

This sounds really amazing, but I wonder how you know there are 1406 words if they're all going to be in different local languages. Wouldn't the word count vary from language to language depending on how often articles are used and such?

Since I read your blog (and your other pages) a lot I just wanted to say hi and tell you I like it! It gives me a lot of inspiration in my own game design (I'm into reality games here in Sweden).

If you ever visit Göteborg, Sweden I'll be more than happy to show you the best local cookies for your cookie-rolling. Probably "ballerina-cookies", or possibly home-made ginger-bread if it's in the wintertime.

About Me

I'm a game designer, a games researcher, and a future forecaster. I make games that give a damn. I study how games change lives. I spend a lot of my time figuring out how the games we play today shape our real-world future. And so I'm trying to make sure that a game developer wins a Nobel Prize by the year 2032. Learn more here in my bio or get my contact information on my contact page.